Working ?from-home concept started when employees of big companies wanted to attain work-life balance. The idea is to allow employees to spend more time at home while still delivering their tasks as if they were physically in the office. Provided with a laptop and a company-paid high speed internet connection, the employee is able to do work, as if they were at the office, like answering e-mails, chatting with colleagues and connecting to the office server. Soon, more and more companies were interested in doing such arrangements because of the productivity gains and employee happiness achieved with having such a program. Thus, the rise of telecommuting as an alternative way of working. With that, technology had to follow. Naturally, with the telecommuting technology widely available, the home-based industry emerged.



The first mode of earning from home is to take jobs that can be done from home. As in the previous paragraph, virtually any office work that does not need human interaction can be done from home. Typing, accounting, and research are some of the most common jobs available for the home-based worker. Companies pay per output (per page/ per line/ per document) or a monthly fee for minimum expected output. Most companies choose to outsource such administrative work because home-based workers are paid lower and do not require benefits (healthcare, vacation, 401K, etc.) due to the contractual nature of their employment status.

If you do not prefer to be an employee while staying at home, then you can start your own Internet Business. There are 4 types of Internet Businesses that one can venture into:

Sell your product. If you have a unique item or service to trade, then you can sell it in the Internet. With the accessibility and convenience of clicking to order, most products that sell in the retail stores also have a percentage of sale through the Internet. Internet business is growing 44% over the last years. Naturally, you would want your product to be part of that rapid growth.

If you don't have your own product to sell, then why not resell already established products? You can do this either by partnering with a Direct Sales company or by reselling products bought in bulk. An example of a Direct Sales company is Amway. They partner with individuals who are trained to represent the company and sell their products. Products range from cosmetics, apparel, kitchenware and the like. Reselling on the other hand entails the home-based individual to buy in bulk from a company that lowers their product price when bought as wholesale.

Selling a product (yours or that of others) is not your cup of tea? Then you can try to join an Affiliate Program. This is an Internet-based marketing program, where you market for others and gain earnings through sales made from your referrals. Typically, all you need is to create a link of the affiliate company on your website and a catchy description to lure visitors to click on the link. The affiliate company tracks the number of sales generated by your referral and a percentage is paid to you as earning.

The last type of Internet business is to be a test consumer. Successful companies use consumer sampling and product surveys as a tool in understanding their targeted user. All you need to do is sign up with survey companies and give them your individual profile (age, sex, state, race). Whenever they need to the opinion of working adults, for example, they can target male and female full-time employees to answer questions about a specific product. They give cash or products in exchange for answering a survey, or trying out a product. This is an easy way of generating cash and prizes, by just clicking away. It is worthy to note that in order to generate a significant amount of cash out of this exercise, one should sign-up with as many companies as possible in order to increase one's chance of answering (and getting paid for) numerous surveys in a day.

Selling and putting up an Internet business entails some amount of capital on your part in order to get things going. If you prefer to take the conservative route, there are free ways of earning, just by staying home and being connected to the Internet.

PTC (Paid-To-Click). Somewhat related to Affiliate Programs, paid-to-click programs pay some amount of cash or reward you with points for clicking and looking at their advertisements. Most PTC sites pay a fraction of a cent, but will give numerous opportunities for clicking ads for a certain amount of time. Look for websites that have low payout so you can immediately cash out your rewards. Beware of sites that promise big prizes for clicking, only to find out that their website crashes just before you redeem.

PTR (Paid-To-Read). In the same line as PTCs, there are companies that pay you to receive and read their e-mail, which also contain advertisements. Most of the guidelines in PTCs are applicable to PTRs.

With all the options laid out above, the shocking truth is that you CAN earn money from home. Truly, home is where the heart (and money) is!